The Lord’s Prayer: For yours is the kingdom, power and glory – forever!

“The conclusion of the Lord’s prayer (for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever) teaches us to be encouraged only by God in our prayers and to praise Him by acknowledging that kingdom, power, and glory are His. To show that we want to be heard and have confidence that we are, we say Amen.” – Shorter Catechism Q. 107

I am encouraged when I read the history of God’s work in bringing his kingdom in times past. By faith, I can trust he is bringing his kingdom in the present, and have ultimate hope that all the prophecies he revealed about his coming kingdom will be fulfilled in the future. 

I can be confident when I pray and work in partnership with the Holy Spirit to advance God’s redemptive plan, yet being patient as I wait for his timeline. I can be encouraged and live in the promise that his kingdom will come, that his infinite power and glory will one day be revealed and on display for all to see.

Confessing my self-centred approach to God in prayer

My selfish nature is narrow and concerned only with the priorities of my own little kingdom. The world system provokes my ambitious desires, and lures me into believing that it is up to me to attain power, success, comfort, and recognition. I want to be a self-made person.

I so easily curve in on myself and am concerned about my well being and priorities alone. I want things to go my way. I overlay my plan and preferences for the way I want God’s kingdom to come. I get stressed out and get into panic-prayer mode when it doesn’t turn out the way I had envisioned.

By faith, I can trust he is bringing his kingdom in the present, and have ultimate hope that all the prophecies he revealed about his coming kingdom will be fulfilled in the future.

Corey Porter

God reveals how history will unfold and climax with Jesus being King

We can pray with confidence that God’s kingdom will come in its fullness in heaven and on earth. All those who are of faith have looked to God to bring the realities of heaven to earth.

God has revealed his plans for his kingdom in times past. Biblical history makes it clear that any ambitions outside of his purposes come to nothing, and that only his work in and through us can bring his kingdom with true power and glory. All selfish ambitions and empires will fall away and lose their glory.

When I think of world history in relation to Christ’s future eternal kingdom, I recall the time God gave Daniel the interpretation of King Nebuchadnezer’s dream of an enormous dazzling statue with head of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of mingled iron and clay.

But as he was watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. “It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver and gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:34-35)

Through the dream and its interpretation, God revealed the succession of Babylon and the future world empires that would follow: Persia, Greece, Rome, and finally a renewed but fragmented and weakened Roman empire. All the kingdoms of this world will come to their end and cease to exist, but a new kingdom would rise to dominate the whole earth eternally. 

Jesus taught about God’s kingdom of contrasts and reversals

In Luke 6:20-26, Jesus identifies the qualities of the people who will inherit his kingdom and contrasts them with the qualities of those who value the kingdoms of this world. Here we see clearly the contrasts and reversals.

Jesus names the qualities of those who will inherit God’s kingdom:

Jesus warns about the qualities of those who will not inherit the kingdom of God:

Jesus gives John a vision of God’s worldwide kingdom, power, and glory

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’” Revelation 7:9-10

We live in a time in world history when we are privileged to have seen much of Nebuchadnezer’s dream already take place. So many of God’s prophecies have been fulfilled in history, and, most importantly, in the person of Jesus. Seeing fulfilled prophecies and promises gives us hope that God will one day fully bring about all that he has promised. 

The words of this petition are a good reminder that it is not up to us finite temporal mortals to bring God’s kingdom to its full fruition. It is God’s kingdom, and only God’s power and glory will accomplish that. In the past, I think I have often been too focussed and burdened as part of the church to make this happen. As though the church could bring the kingdom.

Only Jesus has the power to bring his kingdom in its fullness on earth. When he returns, he will make all things new and bring justice upon all who have not trusted in him and his resurrection. 

When we end our prayers in: “For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen,” we recognize and acknowledge that God’s kingdom, power, and glory belong to him alone and will come to pass according to his timing, not ours.

Please pray for our students to put their ultimate hope in God, that he will bring his kingdom, and that they would be able to partner with him in bringing his kingdom and seeing friends grow closer to Jesus.

Written by Corey Porter.

Haven’t read the earlier parts of this series? You can catch up:

• The Lord’s Prayer: Learning to worship God in my prayers.
• Our Father in heaven
• Hallowed be your name
• Your kingdom come
• Your will be done
• Give us today our daily bread
• Forgive us our debts
• Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

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